Tea Party’s Joe Miller: Off but running in Alaska

The controversial, ultraconservative Tea Party activist who upset Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 GOP primary, and then lost to Murkowski in the general election, has filed papers to run for the Senate in 2014.

Joe Miller has filed a Federal Election Commission form stating he intends to run against Democratic Sen. Mark Begich. Given Miller’s low poll ratings, that’s potentially very good news for Begich.

Controversial Tea Party-backed Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller.

The form, disclosed in Politico, states that the Fairbanks-based Miller plans to run for the Senate as a Republican, and that Citizens for Joe Miller in his campaign committee. A more conventional Republican, Lt. Governor Sean Parnell (“lite governor” to the Alaska Ear column of the Anchorage Daily News) is also exploring the race.

Alaska is a very red state. Yet, its fractious Republicans have fought over control of the state party. Wasilla, Alaska, Mayor Sarah Palin upset incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the 2006 GOP primary. In 2010, Palin supported Miller against Lisa Murkowski, who was appointed by her father to the U.S. Senate.

Miller imploded in 2010 when his controversial views became known. He wanted to phase out Medicare, privatize Social Security, wondered whether unemployment insurance was constitutional, and said he would not fight to bring federal dollars to Alaska. A reporter critical of Miller was detained against his will by the candidate’s “security” detail.

Miller is serving up the same old red meat. In an April letter to potential supporters, the Fairbanks lawyer declared:

“With the reelection of Barack Obama, our very way of self-government is in peril. Though I was labeled an ‘extremist’ by the likes of Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich for telling the truth, both of our sitting senators now routinely engage in such ‘extremist’ rhetoric with respect to federal overreach, government spending and entitlement reform.”

Murkowski staged a comeback in 2010, becoming the first U.S. Senate candidate in 54 years to win in a write-in campaign. Miller contested the write-in count every step of the way.

At least one Tea Party group has urged Palin to make the Senate race, prompting a wicked putdown from Sen. Murkowski, who implied that the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate no longer lives in the state.

A Republican pollster, Harper Polling, found in a survey earlier this month that 49 percent of those polled had an unfavorable opinion of Miller, while just 34 percent had a favorable opinion. Seventeen percent had no opinion or had not heard of Miller.

Begich upset longtime (1969-2008) Republican Sen. Ted Stevens in 2008 by a 3,700-vote margin. Stevens had been convicted of federal charges, having to do with payment for a remodel on his Girdwood, Alaska, home. But the conviction was later vacated due to misconduct by Justice Department prosecutors. Stevens was later killed in a light plane crash near Bristol Bay.